Hi friends – and Merry Christmas Eve for those who celebrate it! Just popping in to share some recent adventures. I’m glad you enjoyed the guest posts over the past two days (4 Myths About Going Gluten Free and How to Use Essential Oils for Health, in case you missed them)!
Going back to Friday, I spent the day in Philadelphia with my college BFFs Turner and Kris!
We’ve turned this into a fun tradition right around the holidays, because Kris comes home to Philly from Paris (where she lives/works). It’s easy and relatively cheap to take the train up from DC, and I can get work done on the train – win!
Our adventures included some good food! I can’t remember the name of our lunch spot, but I had a really good vegan roasted tempeh veggie salad and butternut squash soup with crusty bread. Yum! I hadn’t had tempeh in forever – tasty.
We spent the day strolling around the city doing some holiday shopping – Philly has so many cute local shops! We also stopped by the holiday festival down by the water.
Turner had plans on Friday evening so Kris and I had ourselves a romantic dinner date at a cool BYOB Italian place called Ulivo. I love that so many places in Philly are BYOB! We snagged a bottle of wine from Turner to bring with us – thanks, Turner! 🙂
We had a few hours for dinner before needing to catch our trains so we took our time and started with the olives and a cheese plate (so good). For my entrée awhile later, I had the lamb rigatoni with kale – delicious. Reminded me of my Rigatoni with Slow Cooker Stewed Lamb & Vegetables!
I took the train back to DC after dinner. Fun day!
On Saturday afternoon, Matt and I had a fun hiking outing with our friends Kathleen and Zach and their cute newly adopted pup Jaffa.
If you’re in the DC area, check out Scott’s Run Nature Preserve in Virginia! It’s near Great Falls but a lot less crowded, and it was a pretty hike through the woods. Beautiful falls, too. Make sure to lock your cars and hide your valuables in this lot, though – we unfortunately arrived back at the lot to find Kathleen’s purse had been stolen out of their car. 🙁
Sunday was spent packing for the trip to Pittsburgh and our cruise, which we’ll be leaving directly from Pittsburgh for. I also stole away for an hour to get in an Edge Yoga class with Chelsea – felt great to stretch.
In the evening, Matt and I had an early Christmas with my family, and I snuck in an after dinner outing for drinks with my high school girlfriends who were in town. SO fun to see them as always!
On Monday morning, we got in a short walk in the woods and a basement strength workout before hitting the road for the ’Burgh.
So far in Pittsburgh with Matt’s family we’ve been enjoying some serious relaxing and sleeping in! We had a great dinner out at Kaya in the Strip District, and last night we stayed in with homemade pizzas. Matt and I made quite the epic creation – basically everything but the kitchen sink. And yes, those are anchovies – just on my half. 😉
As for fitness, Matt and I went on a fun run/walk/hike yesterday all around town (we’re in Sewickley, PA – and it’s weirdly warm here right now):
And this morning we hit up the YMCA with Matt’s brother Chris for a little fitness and racquetball fun.
Time to get ready for Christmas Eve festivities! I’m taking the day off from the internet tomorrow but will be back on Friday to share a recap of the epic feast we’re having tomorrow on Christmas day.
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, my friends! See you on Friday!
